Your perfect freebie

As I already mentioned in an earlier article, if you want to build a huge email list you need a freebie. And a freebie can be a free pdf report, free video course, an email course, free coaching lessons or a coupon. In the following, I will describe them in detail and the advantages/disadvantages of every freebie.

In the following, I will describe them in detail and the advantages/disadvantages of every freebie. Of course, I believe there are many other possible freebies but these are the most popular.

Free pdf report

One of the fastest and easiest ways to create a freebie is to write a pdf report. All you need is a problem your target group has and they are willing to give their email address for. Usually creating a list of something is a good idea.

Search a little bit in the forums of your target group and have a look at their problems. If you can solve their problem with your pdf report is it very likely that they give their email address for.

If you don’t want to create a freebie on your own you can buy a freebie. There are products called PLR products or private label products. By buying the rights you can sell this product or give it away for free.

There are different websites that offer ebooks that you can sell. A great website is Master Resale Rights. There are PLR products in every niche. (If you are in the personal development niche or earning money online niche have a look here)

The advantage of PLR products is that you get besides the pdf-report 3D covers of the ebook. That makes your freebie look very professional.

There is also the possibility to outsource the writing and designing of your freebie. That is slightly more effort but that makes it easier to have a unique report.

The advantage of a free pdf report is that you can produce it very fast and easy. Also, it is easy to scale it. It doesn’t make a difference if you have 10 sign ups per day or 1,000 sign ups per day.

The disadvantage is that the pdf report is not very personal. If you offer free coaching lessons it is easier to communicate with them. However, I think that is only a small disadvantage since you can build this relationship with a good autoresponder.

Free video course

Another great freebie is a free video course. That sounds very complicated but it isn’t. One possibility is that you can film yourself in front

One possibility is that you can film yourself in front of the camera. You don’t need to buy expensive equipment or software. For the beginning, it is totally fine to use the webcam of your laptop or the camera of your smartphone.

If you don’t want to be in front of the camera (totally understandable) you can also create a PowerPoint slide and film your screen and capture your voice, while you explain more in detail.

The advantage of a free video course is that they create much more trust than with a pdf report. They can see (or hear) you while you explain your topic more in detail. The trust of your audience will be much higher from the beginning.

Also, it is easy to scale. Once you have produced your video course you can send it out as often as you want.

The disadvantage of a video course is that it is more work to create one. You have to set up everything and maybe buy software for cutting.

Free email course

Instead of writing a report you can split the report into parts and send out the parts in an email course. An email course is a little more effort to create than a pdf report. However, it is easier to create a relationship with your audience with an email course because they will hear from you not once but many times (depending on the length of your email course).

Also, with an autoresponder,  you can set up your email course completely automatic. Creating an autoresponder is not very complicated and easy to set up (read here). So if they sign-up they will receive automated emails from you.

It is very easy to scale your email course. As your autoresponder sends out automated emails you don’t have to do anything.

The disadvantage besides the higher effort is that it is not sure that your audience will get all of your emails. There is the possibility that one of your lessons will be filtered as spam.

Free coaching lessons

If you are a coach or an expert in your field you can offer your audience free coaching lessons for signing up with their email address. This can be a great way to build your reputation within your target group.

The coaching lesson can be between 30 and 60 minutes and can be held over Skype or Google Hangouts. Of course, you should try to offer them very good coaching. If your coaching is very good it is very likely that they will tell their family and friends and this will lead to more sign-ups and/or reputation.

Also, the trust will be much higher and it is much easier to sell something to them.

The advantage of a coaching lesson is that you don’t have much work upfront. You don’t have to write a report or create a video course and you can start right away.

The big disadvantage is that coaching lessons are not scalable. With every sign-up, you have to organize the coaching lesson. Also, this coaching lesson is free so it is possible that if you have many sign-ups that you work the whole day without earning something.

And I think as an online marketer/blogger time is the most important concurrency so you should really think how you should invest your time.

Coupons

If you have a local business or an online shop creating coupons can be very good idea. Groupon was able to build a six figures email list by offering coupons. So as you can see, it is a very good opportunity to build a really huge list.

The benefit of a coupon is that you can create it really fast. If you have a good online shop system that shouldn’t be much effort. Also, the conversion of coupons is very good because who doesn’t want to save money? 🙂

It is also a very great way to bring them to your online shop because when they want to use your coupon they need to buy anything from you.

Offering coupons is also very easy to scale (if you want to). You can send out as many coupons as you want and build a big email list very easy.

The disadvantage is that with every coupon, you giving away profit. However, once you have gained their email address you can market to them a lifetime for free (if they don’t sign out).

I believe that is a great way for local businesses or online shops to build an email list.

As you can see every freebie has it’s advantages and disadvantages. It really depends on your type of business and the time you want to put into your freebie.

I have created an email course myself where you’ll learn in 7 days how to build the foundation of a successful online business (see here).

What has been your experience with freebies? What kind of freebies do you use? I want to know your experience so please leave a comment below 🙂